An L.A. County firefighter assaulted his neighbor. But his bosses couldn't fire him

Los Angeles Times

06-05-2025

For the Los Angeles County Fire Department, it's a clear red line: firefighters cannot assault their neighbors.
That's why the department fired Adam Clint, a longtime Santa Clarita fire captain, whose heated off-duty dispute with a man a few doors down landed him with a felony assault conviction.
'By assaulting your neighbor and being convicted of a felony, you engaged in conduct unbecoming a fire captain,' Deputy Fire Chief Thomas Ewald wrote in a January 2023 termination letter. 'Your misconduct embarrassed and discredited the Department.'
But the Fire Department may soon have to take Clint back.
In February, the L.A. County Civil Service Commission voted unanimously to reinstate Clint, 51, and award him more than two years of back pay.
The commissioners found that there wasn't enough evidence to support accusations that Clint called his neighbor, who is Black, the N-word and brandished a gun before knocking him to the ground. They also found that Clint was stressed by the 'aggressive' demeanor and 'threatening' words of the neighbor, Robert Pope.
'His misconduct on July 3, 2021 was an isolated, uncharacteristic lapse in judgment not likely to be repeated,' the commission's hearing officer wrote in his report, which recommended downgrading Clint's punishment to a 30-day suspension.
The Fire Department is appealing the decision, filing a petition in L.A. County Superior Court on April 14 stating that it was 'well within the Department's discretion' to fire Clint. It is unclear where Clint, who took home $295,000, including benefits, the year of the assault, would be assigned if he returns to the department.
Steve Haney, Clint's attorney, said his client feels deep remorse for hitting Pope but denies ever pointing a gun or calling him a racial slur. A judge reduced Clint's felony assault conviction to a misdemeanor, which was later expunged from his record.
'The guy doesn't have a racist bone in his body,' said Haney, who questioned why the county was spending money on outside lawyers to keep Clint out of a job. 'It's a ridiculous waste of taxpayer money.'
In the last four years, the civil service commission has forced department heads to take back dozens of workers they had tried to fire — including sheriff's deputies, probation staffers and social workers — costing the county millions in back pay, records show.
Of the roughly 65 employees the commission has moved to reinstate since 2021, nearly two-thirds were peace officers from the Sheriff's or Probation departments, according to a review of the commission's minutes and annual reports.
The commission is made up of five members, each appointed by an L.A. County supervisor, who serve for $150 a meeting.
The city of Los Angeles has a similar commission, as well as Board of Rights panels for police officer discipline. The union that represents rank-and-file Los Angeles Police Department officers successfully pushed for the passage of a ballot measure allowing for more civilians on Board of Rights panels after a study showed that civilians were routinely more lenient on problem cops than their fellow police officers were.
John Donner, president of the county civil service commission, said he and his colleagues typically agree with the departments' disciplinary decisions. He characterized the relationship between county departments and the commission as 'pretty civil.' In 2023, the commission upheld roughly three out of four disciplinary decisions.
After Jim McDonnell became sheriff in 2014, he started suing to challenge the commission's reinstatements of deputies who had been fired for lying, saying he did not know where to assign a deputy who would lack the credibility to testify in court.
Robert Luna, who has been sheriff since 2022, has not filed any petitions contesting the commission's decisions regarding his deputies, court records show.
Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa has fought in court to overturn two commission decisions.
One involved an employee fired in 2021 for buying a lobster lunch for a minor who wasn't on her caseload and repeatedly visiting an imprisoned gang member without approval. A judge ordered the commission in April to reconsider that decision. In the other case, which is ongoing, a deputy was fired in 2019 after video footage showed he lied about a minor beating him up.
In 2022, the commission brought back probation bureau chief Hellen Carter, who was fired, in part, for lying to colleagues about being a psychiatrist, a coroner, a Pro Bass fisherman, a trauma surgeon, an Olympic swimmer, an acrobatic pilot and an Army vet who had lost 70% of her hearing from a bomb blast in Afghanistan, according to her disciplinary notice. The commission found that the decision to fire her was based on 'false and unreliable allegations.'
The Probation Department sued to stop her reinstatement, saying she was a 'blight and liability' and her behavior was 'egregious and persistent (not quirky).' The department lost.
Carter did not respond to an email. When she returned to the county in 2024, she collected more than half a million dollars in backpay, according to salary records.
The neighborhood spat spiraled out of control almost immediately.
On July 3, 2021, Pope's wife called him to say that Clint had just berated her for speeding on their Santa Clarita cul-de-sac.
Pope said he stopped by Clint's house, and the two got into a heated argument in the doorway, culminating with the captain pointing a gun at him and yelling to 'get the f— off my property,' punctuated with a racial slur.
Clint went inside his house and reemerged with a gun, according to Pope. As Pope retreated to his car, where his two 14-year-old stepdaughters were waiting, Clint knocked him out from behind, leaving him on the ground until he regained consciousness, Pope said. He said he later discovered a footprint-shaped bruise on his back.
Clint initially denied to sheriff's deputies that he had hit Pope, but later admitted to punching him in the head.
After giving a statement to the deputies that morning, Pope arrived at his sister's funeral, where he was supposed to be a pallbearer, just as everyone was leaving.
Tensions between Clint's and Pope's families worsened. In 2022, Clint sued Pope and his wife, Rozanna Avetyan, as well as L.A. County, arguing that the sheriff's deputies and fire officials were biased in favor of Pope based on 'his African American Ancestry.' Clint also alleged in the lawsuit that he was not afforded due process, 'clearly due to his Caucasian race.' The case was dismissed.
Pope sued a year later for battery. That case is ongoing.
Pope and his wife said the family has struggled to move on from that day, becoming so reluctant to leave the house that they gave away their dogs so they wouldn't have to encounter Clint on walks. They eventually decided to move away.
'I just don't understand how he got his job back,' Pope said. 'It is just mind-blowing.'